A combination of posts...still learning this craft of blogging!!!!!!

Seems I still have a lot to learn about this blogging lark. Have been creating "PAGES" and NOT posts.
Hopefully I have worked it out, so now to the catchup.


Been working on the roadway to the station a bit more. It seems that 47mm does NOT equal 55mm. Absolutely no idea where I got 47mm for the platform width, given that I have it written down on the drawings that it is 55mm.
Ah well, a bit of cut and add....situation sorted.

I have just finished painting the Station building. No grouting colour has been added yet and I hope that when it is it will tone down the orange of the brickwork a bit more, otherwise I will have to repaint the brick quoins.
The colour of the stonework looks better than what I have done on the Goods shed, so the Goods shed will have to be darkened!
Just add it to the list of things to do.

I have missed putting in the pic so will show it later, of the station building painted.
Started the task of cutting individual slates, and have a nice collection, as can be seen below:

I started to put them on....what a pain/eyesore. Not sure how the pros do it but apart from driving me batty, it looked terrible. I can only think that I wasn't allowing enough gap between them. Some were OK but quite a few virtually  joined as one with the Limonene.

Start again.
Did it in strips and has worked very well. Unfortunately I haven't taken a pic as yet of the slates in place on that roof.

Above is the carriage roof upside down. I had marked and grooved the underside of the shed roof a while back. The underside of the roof boards were laid at an angle.

At the moment this is as far as it is going to get until I can resort the  steel, in this case the brass trusses that support the roof. I did use a jig to help locate them but with the movement of the styrenne, it hasn't been as good as it could have been so I have to realign a few of them, so that I can solder in the lengthwise ones and then the cross bearing ones.

Last but not least is a pic of the roof in place on the station building. Never mind the sanding block that is representing the platforn there.  :)

Well that is the combined update, and I shall keep at it.

A Little Update

This is just a basic update to let one and know I am still working on the layout.
At the moment there is more than one thing on the go.
Started to paint the platform faces, the goods siding one can be seen in one of the pics below. Assembled the Station building, so that I could complete some of the platform and road foundations, and have continued on with this foundation work. (Painting plaform faces is a loooong and tedious job)

In this overall shot you can see the station and Goods Shed in place.

Just behind the station is a sheet of card which is the base sheet for the roadway. further layers will help form the fall of the road to the gutter at the front of the station.

I'm using mdf for the main grid work to support the roads and paths. The card at different thicknesses with help form the contours as required.

In this image the painted section (not completed) of the back of the station platform can be seen as well as the formwork for the loading bank and roadway accessing Tuckers Maltsters.

All the formwork, for example the loading bank are seperate pieces at the moment, so that they are easy to handle to work on. The section of roadway with the card on it, is also seperate to the section around the station building which is seperate again to the platform.

Once I am at the final stages it can all be assembled together and glued.

Until the next update!

The Goods Shed

Started to paint the Goods Shed.
I started with the back wall, that hopefully won't be seen much, if at all.
Given I wasn't happy with the first results, and the fact I did NOT sand down the top surface which it needs for the paint to adhere, I thought I was in diabolicle trouble, to the point I was going to make a new wall.
Last resort, a small hand held wire brush.
WONDERFUL!
Not only did I get rid of the top surface for easier and better painting but the wire brushing was enough to to leave a paint residue, which doesn't look to bad for older cement. by the time it is weathered I believe it will come up reasonably well.

The back wall.
The orange of the bricks is still to bright to my eye.

This end wall has had a paint and wire brush. Blank space is for the timber office.

Oh well, back to painting!

Catchup Pics

A couple of pics of the layout to date.

Taken from the terminus end, the platform for the stock yard, and part of the station platform can be seen.

This shot is of the station and yard entrance.

Had to check the points and electricals were operating correctly.

Long story short.
Started to model Maiden Newton in OO (all 40'of it incl. curves at each end).
Have put the house on the market as we are finding it to hot here in the summers and wish to move south  (would rather move to the UK but alas, finances won't permit that) where it will at least we will get more cool changes in the summer than up here, where 40 plus degrees for days on end is not uncommon.

So, Maiden Newton was dismantled and packed up. I needed to model something that I could pack away quickly and easily in case the house should sell. Went through the four books of GWR trackplans and settled on Ashburton as being a small BLT. (about 12')

The layout consists of 2 boards with 3x2 pine framing and mdf on top. One is 8'long and the second is 4'long.
The track has already been laid using C&L flexible track.
Points are handmade on pcb sleepers.
Points operation is WIT (wire in tube).
Electrics are DC.
Controller is handbuilt from circuit published by Dukedog on RM Web....  here .

Buildings have been started using Palight plastic. My thanks to Geoff Forster for suggesting it as a possible option for making buildings from. His Blog is "http://radnorailways.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" which should show up on the side (I hope)!

With luck I shall take photo's tomorrow of where I am up to and hopefully more as things progress.